Pioneer Point Partners makes third platform investment in six months, acquiring Denmark’s largest producer of biogas

Date 14-03-2018

Pioneer Point Partners makes third platform investment in six months, acquiring Denmark’s largest producer of biogas

Pioneer Point Partners makes third platform investment in six months, acquiring Denmark’s largest producer of biogas

Energy and environment infrastructure specialist Pioneer Point Partners has completed its third platform portfolio company deal in six months, by acquiring Nature Energy in a €150 million enterprise value transaction. Nature Energy is the largest producer of biogas in Denmark and the leading producer of green gas to grid in Europe from farm and food waste. This complements Pioneer’s other recent platforms, which are Flexgen, in German flexible power generation, and Solar Republic, in Italian solar PV. Nature Energy is Pioneer’s eighth investment, and its third platform investment since Q3 2017.

Nature Energy has built 5 large scale operational plants in the last 4 years, has 2 more plants in construction, and is developing a strong pipeline of new projects. When its first 7 plants are all operational, the company will produce around 100 million m3 of green gas per annum. Nature Energy is a European leader in the emerging green gas to grid sector, and sits at the intersection of green energy production, the circular economy in waste management, and sustainable farming. Green gas injected into the European gas grid can be stored, which is critical to driving more renewable energy because it balances intermittent power sources such as wind and solar. Green gas also provides a direct path to green transport and heating without the need to build new distribution infrastructure. Nature Energy was acquired by Pioneer in a consortium with global investment firm Davidson Kempner, and leading Danish pension fund Sampension.

Pioneer Point Partners is a private investment partnership that specialises in infrastructure assets in the energy and environmental sectors across Europe. The firm was established in 2008 by four partners who have deployed more than €700 million of equity into 27 portfolio companies in 17 countries over the past two decades.

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Investment Consortium Acquires European Leader in the Production of Green Gas to Grid

Date 14-03-2018

Nature Energy is the largest producer of biogas in Denmark, and the leading producer of green gas to grid in Europe from farm and food waste

Nature Energy was today acquired by a consortium comprised of European private equity energy investment specialists Pioneer Point Partners, global investment firm Davidson Kempner, and leading Danish pension fund Sampension. The privatisation of Nature Energy – a company founded by eight local Danish municipalities in 1979 as a natural gas distributor - marks a new growth era for the company, its management and employees. With an enterprise value of DKK 1.1 billion and debt facilities available from the Danish government’s Green Investment Fund and local banks, Nature Energy is poised to grow from 5 operational plants up to 17 domestically (including 2 under construction) within the next 5-10 years and to leverage Denmark’s pioneering position in green gas to grid production by expanding internationally. In addition, Nature Energy has more than 60,000 gas customers across Denmark and Europe.

“Today is a significant day for our employees, customers and partners. The new ownership will help us to continue to enhance our production of green gas to grid at home and begin to grow our business beyond Denmark.”, says Ole Hvelplund, CEO of Nature Energy. Sam Abboud, founding partner of Pioneer Point Partners, added: “Nature Energy is a European leader in the emerging green gas to grid sector, and sits at the intersection of green energy production, the circular economy in waste management, and sustainable farming. Green gas injected into the European gas grid can be stored, which is critical to driving more renewable energy because it balances intermittent power sources such as wind and solar. Green gas also provides a direct path to green transport and heating using existing distribution infrastructure.” “Nature Energy contributes to Danish agricultural output and productivity by returning scarce resources to nature, supports the local economy including more than 200 Danish farmers who directly or via cooperatives own a minority stake in the nearest Nature Energy plant, and help Denmark’s green energy transition and circular economy commitment by recycling farm and food waste.”, says Hasse Jørgensen, CEO of Sampension. Management and the new owners intend to use the company’s strong capital base to accelerate growth of the existing green gas to grid plant pipeline and to develop new business activities in Europe and globally: “We firmly believe that Nature Energy is the perfect platform to build a European giant in the emerging sector of grid injected waste derived green gas, following other innovative Danish renewable energy players such as Vestas and Ørsted (formerly DONG) that have gone global.”, says Sam Abboud, founding partner of Pioneer Point Partners.

This concludes the disposal of Primrose’s solar portfolio, following the sale announced last week of 78.4 MW of assets to Greencoat Solar I and in January this year of 95 MW of assets to the Bluefield Solar Income Fund.

Since Primrose was founded in 2013, it has built 15 different ground-mount solar projects in England and Wales, totalling 253 MW. Its sites have included some of the UK’s largest: Eveley in Hampshire (49 MW); Southwick, also in Hampshire (48 MW); and Canworthy in Cornwall (41 MW).